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Aussie Open leader Senden has major hopes

Darren Walton

With one eye on golf's majors and the other on a second Stonehaven Cup, John Senden was thinking big after surging to a two-shot first-round lead at the Australian Open.

Fresh off his finest season on the US PGA Tour, Senden seized on perfect scoring conditions to collect eight birdies in a sizzling six-under-par 66 on Thursday.

"I am playing some of the best golf of my life. I need to believe in that and keep going forward," the 2006 champion said after rebounding from two bogeys on the inward nine to ice his round with consecutive birdies on his 16th and 17th holes.

Senden has a two-stroke buffer over countrymen Richard Green and Kim Felton, English star Justin Rose and New Zealander Gareth Paddison, who all shot 68 in the morning before the wind picked up to claim several big names after lunch.

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New South Welshman Brendan Jones defied the tougher conditions in the afternoon to join them at four under.

Among the casualties from the late starters were eight-times major champion Tom Watson, who carded a disappointing six-over 78, and 14-year-old Chinese sensation Guan Tianling, who is also in grave danger of missing the halfway cut following his nightmare 82.

Contesting the Open for the first time since 1985, Watson leaked six shots in four holes amid a horror stretch from the fifth and the eighth.

"I'm embarrassed," Watson said.

Using his broomstick putter after experimenting with a shorter blade in the lead-up, pre-tournament favourite Adam Scott squeezed out an even-par 72, while defending champion Greg Chalmers returned a respectable 71.

Senden, meanwhile, continued on from his hot year in America.

"The results have shown in the past couple of years," he said.

"I have been inside the top 30 and been consistent. I have taken those feelings and brought them home to Australia. I feel better for that.

"I am learning every year. I feel I can keep improving and keeping knocking on the door in every event I play."

The sweet-swinging 41-year-old chalked up five top-10 finishes in America in 2012, including one at the US Open, and believes he's finally ready to start delivering on golf's greatest stages.

His coach Ian Triggs has already endorsed Senden as a major winning in waiting.

"I said four or five years ago that I needed to get more experience in the major championships," Senden said.

"Each year I'd get in one or two, possibly. For the last three years I've been getting in to all four. That has been much better experience for me.

"If I keep working hard on my game and getting this experience in the major championships, playing with the best players in the world, that's one of the goals."

Rose also made a hot start, picking up three birdies in the first four holes en route to a front-nine 32.

The world No.4 dropped his only shot of the day when he fluffed a greenside flop shot on the par-4 third, his 12th of the round.

Starting on the 10th, Paddison briefly had the outright lead after racking up four birdies in five holes, but dropped back to the chasing pack with bogeys on the third and fifth - his 12th and 14th holes of the day.